Timer button grayed out in

[Hoosier-Daddy]

I have a 522 and beginning a few weeks ago, when I open an event from the the Daily Schedule screen, the Timer button is grayed out. I hoped it was just some temporary bug in a firmware update but I guess not.

This makes some routine processes very tedious and time consuming, particularly when a timer covers multiple events and you want to open the timer to decide which duplicates you want to skip. Or if you want to delete a timer that suddenly has a conflict due to program schedule changes. In these and other situations, I now have to leave the daily schedule (which I may need to see to decide on conflict resolution) and switch to the timers screen then search for the timer in question. It is getting REALLY old.

Does anyone know the cause or fix for this problem?

TIA

 

[thomasjk]

Have you pulled the plug to reboot the 522?

 

[ZachS@DISH]

This is a known product issue that we are aware about. It will be corrected in a future update. We appreciate your patience.

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

This is a known product issue that we are aware about. It will be corrected in a future update.

Thanks. Can you give an estimate. We talking weeks, years, decades, ???

And can I get a credit on my account equal to my normal hourly rate for all the time this has/will cost me?

We appreciate your patience.

I didn't even know I had any. Nobody else ever accused me of that

 

[ZachS@DISH]

We do not have an ETA but it will be included in the next software.

 

[Cold Irons]

...And can I get a credit on my account equal to my normal hourly rate for all the time this has/will cost me?

As soon as Microsoft pays me for all the time they've cost me!

 

[navychop]

I think I can give you a pretty good idea when the update will be out. The week after you upgrade to Hopper!

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[cruiser83]

My 522 has the same issue, I also posted about it a couple weeks ago. I was hoping it would be resolved by now but I guess all we can do is wait, it certainly is an annoyance. Maybe it's just time for us to upgrade our equipment

 

[3HaloODST]

That's one thing that irks me about Dish's software upgrade policy. You basically have no control over if/when your receiver is updated, presumably to reduce the chances of getting a bad update, yet there are many occasions where Dish released software that they supposedly made sure worked, and it turned out to break more things than it fixed.

Sent from my iPad 2 using Forum Runner

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

I have to ask 3Halo and cruiser83, just how hard will Dish try to not answer your questions?

I've asked twice how often updates are done on average and they had to work pretty hard to come up with a response that didn't even give any hint at all.

So maybe someone other than DISH knows what is the average or least or most amount of times between updates. As you can see I can not even get DISH to say if updates happen less than a decade apart. Obviously the customer doesn't know how often theirs has been updated. I've never received any notification that my 522 had been updated. So as far as I know it could have been years between the last good one and this recent screwed up one and likely years until the next one. I can understand not guessing so someone isn't mad if it doesn't happen but really, you can't even say if its sometimes months or years between? Really?

 

[lucky86]

If I had to take a guess, I would say that updates are more frequent with the newer model receivers. Based off of forum posts over time it looks like 522/625 gets at least a couple updates a year. I'm sure that no box goes a decade without an update.

 

[3HaloODST]

I believe the 522 and the 625 use the same software so based on the recent past I'd say lucky86 makes a good inference on the software update frequency. You can always hit MENU - MENU and take note of your current software version. Then you can check periodically for the number to change.

Sent from my iPhone 4S using Forum Runner

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Thanks. That's what I needed to know.

I guess it's time to pull the plug on DISH then. Been a customer since the 522 came out (10+ years?) I'm not going to put up with this problem knowing it could be 6 months (or more) for a fix. It's making me waste way to much time trying to work around it. What the hell is their test routine for a new release? Turn it on and if anything gets displayed, its ready to dump on everyone?

 

[jawxx]

I thought that 522s could be upgraded to 625s no questions asked just like 301s to 311s due to the inability to get proper software updates etc

 

[ClarkGable]

The wise thing for Dish to do would be to send out the previous version of the software until they can work out the bugs on the latest release. If the strategy is to get customers to upgrade their equipment, it is not a very sound one.

 

[cruiser83]

Hoosier - I never called Dish about the problem, I got my answer here and then just crossed my fingers a fix would be available sooner rather than later.

I do find it amazing the update causing the issue made it out to the public. It's not just the Timer button being grayed out but also the movies button from the recordings screen, at least for me anyway. That one should of been pretty easy to spot if they had done any sort of software pre-release testing.

I have been real busy lately and just have not gotten around to it yet, but I continue to be a happy Dish customer (15 years) so my plan was to eventually just call and see what equipment upgrade deal they offer me. Dish has always treated me fairly through the years, I think being a loyal customer and paying on time for 15+ years has put me in an exceptional customer category. While this button issue certainly is a nuisance it's not enough for me to consider any provider changes, but I do hope they come out with a fix soon.

 

[ZachS@DISH]

...the movies button from the recordings screen,

This is by design. Please order movies from channel 01 or 501.

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Hoosier - I never called Dish about the problem, I got my answer here and then just crossed my fingers a fix would be available sooner rather than later.

I do find it amazing the update causing the issue made it out to the public. It's not just the Timer button being grayed out but also the movies button from the recordings screen, at least for me anyway. That one should of been pretty easy to spot if they had done any sort of software pre-release testing.

I have been real busy lately and just have not gotten around to it yet, but I continue to be a happy Dish customer (15 years) so my plan was to eventually just call and see what equipment upgrade deal they offer me. Dish has always treated me fairly through the years, I think being a loyal customer and paying on time for 15+ years has put me in an exceptional customer category. While this button issue certainly is a nuisance it's not enough for me to consider any provider changes, but I do hope they come out with a fix soon.

I don't know if it's occurred to everyone reading, but it should cost DISH virtually nothing to test everything in the user interface after any change. It can be totally automated. That's why this is conscionable. I suspect they had to be fully aware of these problems but still jammed it down our throats for a reason we will never know (maybe a legal or serious hidden problem in the previous version). All DISH has to do to test the user interface with nearly ZERO costs to them is to install the new software in a sample DVR in a known state designed for the tests, aim an IR transmitter at it and "play back" a canned test sequence of EVERY possible function and then compare the final state of the box with a proper "after" state. Tests for proper viewing selection and playback control can be automated as well by using recordings of nothing but solid color backgrounds and externally record what's on the screen and have an automated comparison of that to a proper after state. Proper functioning of skip forward or back (for example) would result in a section of the video that is a different color being displayed if the command worked properly.

The point is, there is no excuse for not testing and they are either not testing or ignoring the results.

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

I thought that 522s could be upgraded to 625s no questions asked just like 301s to 311s due to the inability to get proper software updates etc

I doubt that would help. I don't even know if those use different software and would be shocked if the 522 had these problems and 625 didn't. I thought the only differences between the two were the size of the hard drive and displaying the different model name where needed. I suspect most people who wanted the larger disk just did what I did so many years ago I can't remember. Just get a bigger HD for peanuts, sit it on top of the DVR and plug it into the MB in place of the smaller internal disk.

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Does anyone know if DISH has this screwed up in other model DVRs? And if so, which ones?

I'm really fed up. If there is a different model that doesn't have the problem, I would consider a swap (without contract extension). Barring that or immediate roll back of 522/625 software, I am definitely dumping DISH.